FMBC

1st Workshop on Formal Methods for Blockchains

hosted by the 3rd Formal Methods World Congress on October 11, 2019 in Porto, Portugal

Blockchains are decentralized transactional ledgers that rely on cryptographic hash functions for guaranteeing the integrity of the stored data. Participants on the network reach agreement on what valid transactions are through consensus algorithms.

Blockchains may also provide support for Smart Contracts. Smart Contracts are scripts of an ad-hoc programming language that are stored in the blockchain and that run on the network. They can interact with the ledger’s data and update its state. These scripts can express the logic of possibly complex contracts between users of the blockchain. Thus, Smart Contracts can facilitate the economic activity of blockchain participants.

With the emergence and increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, it is now of utmost importance to have strong guarantees of the behaviour of blockchain so ware. These guarantees can be brought by using Formal Methods. Indeed, Blockchain software encompasses many topics of computer science where using Formal Methods techniques and tools is relevant: consensus algorithms to ensure the liveness and the security of the data on the chain, programming languages specifically designed to write smart contracts, cryptographic protocols, such as zero-knowledge proofs, used to ensure privacy, etc.

Scope and Topics

This workshop is a forum to identify theoretical and practical approaches of formal methods for blockchain technology. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Formal models of blockchain applications or concepts
  • Formal methods for consensus protocols
  • Formal methods for blockchain-specific cryptographic primitives or protocols
  • Formal languages for Smart Contracts
  • Verification of Smart Contracts

The preliminary program is now available here.

Title and abstract of the keynote are now available here.

The pre-proceedings are now available online.

The slides of Ilia Sergey's keynote are online.